ZAGREB, 21 April, 2021 - The U.S. State Department has added about 100 countries this week to its "Level Four: Do Not Travel" advisory list, putting Croatia, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Mexico, Germany and others on the list, citing a "very high level of COVID-19," Reuters reported.

On Monday, the State Department said it would boost the number of countries receiving its highest advisory rating to about 80% of countries worldwide.

Before Tuesday, the State Department listed 34 out of about 200 countries as "Do Not Travel." The State Department now lists about 131 countries at Level Four, says Reuters.

The State Department said Monday the move "reflects an adjustment in the State Department's Travel Advisory system to rely more on (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's) existing epidemiological assessments."

Other countries in the "Do Not Travel" list include Finland, Egypt, Belgium, Turkey, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland and Spain. Some countries like China and Japan remain at "Level 3: Reconsider Travel."

Most Americans already had been prevented from traveling to much of Europe because of COVID-19 restrictions. Washington has barred nearly all non-U.S. citizens who have recently been in most of Europe, China, Brazil, Iran and South Africa, Reuters says.

On Tuesday, the United States extended by another 30 days restrictions barring non-essential travel at its Canadian and Mexican borders.

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ZAGREB, 21 April, 2021 - In the past 24 hours 3,117 coronavirus cases and 49 COVID-19 deaths have been registered in Croatia, the national COVID-19 response team said on Wednesday.

The number of active cases is 15,380 and includes 2,201 hospitalised patients, 230 of whom are on ventilators, while 31,562 people are self-isolating.

To date 1.7 million people have been tested for the virus, including 10,523 in the past 24 hours.

Through 20 April 708,960 vaccine doses were administered, with 419,252 people receiving the first dose and 143,796 both. For 2,116 people there is no information on whether they received one or both shots.

To date Croatia has registered 313,523 coronavius cases and 6,692 deaths, while 291,351 patients have recovered, including 1,687 in the past 24 hours.

For more about COVID-19 in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

ZAGREB, 20 April, 2021 - In the past 24 hours, 9,831 coronavirus tests have been performed in Croatia and of them 21.4%, that is 2,106, have turned out to be positive, the country's COVID-19 crisis management team stated on Tuesday.

The COVID-related death toll has increased by 42 to 6,643.

Croatia has currently 13,999 active cases, including 2,198 patients who are receiving hospital treatment and of them 213 are placed on ventilators.

As many as 30,534 people are self-isolating.

Since the outbreak of the infection on 25 February last year, 1,713,174 people have been tested for the virus. So far Croatia has registered 310,306 coronavirus cases, and 289,664 recovered patients, including 1,877 in the past 24 hours.

Since the beginning of this year, 698,032 COVID vaccine doses have been administered under Croatia's vaccine rollout plan. The press release reads that until 19 April, 556,969 people have been given shots against this disease. As many as 413,812 people have received the first dose of the two-dose vaccine, and 141,063 have been inoculated with both doses.

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ZAGREB, 16 April, 2021 - In the past 24 hours Croatia has registered 2,698 new coronavirus cases while 44 people have died as a consequence, the national COVID-19 response team said on Friday.

There are 16,053 active cases in the country, including 2,003 hospitalised patients, of whom 186 are on ventilators.

There are currently 31,195 people in self-isolation.

Since 25 February 2020, when the first case of coronavirus was detected in Croatia, there have been a total of 303,598 people infected with the virus and 6,486 people have died as a consequence.

A total of 281,059 people have recovered from the disease, including 1,908 in the past 24 hours.

To date a total of 1,683,651 people have been tested for the virus, including 9,233 in the past 24 hours.

As of 15 April a total of 643,834 doses of vaccines have been administered, inoculating 519,375 people. Of that number, 393,002 people have received the first dose and 124,459 have received both doses. For 1,914 people there is no data on which dose they have received.

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ZAGREB, 15 April, 2021 - The head of the national COVID response team, Interior Minister Davor Božinović, said on Thursday that the epidemiological measures in force until midnight tonight would be extended, underscoring that the restrictions would not be tightened at the national level, but as necessary from county to county.

Speaking to the press after a meeting of the government's Scientific Advisory Council, Božinović said that meeting mostly focused on the current situation with the spread of coronavirus.

County response teams, he added, will adopt stricter measures depending on the epidemiological situation which at the moment will not be ramped up at the national level.

He said that the situation varies from county to county, adding that currently Primorje-Gorski Kotar has the strictest measures.

Vaccines no longer doubtful in Croatia 

Božinović announced that an additional 50 million doses of vaccines were arriving in the EU in the second quarter and he expressed hope that the number of doses for Croatia would not be brought into question.

He added that the experts had different opinions regarding school lessons but there is no reason now to change the decision for schools to go online as the number of those infected is not falling but actually increasing.

Asked what number would be required to ramp up restrictions according to the experts, Božinović said that some countries that introduced so-called traffic lights had tied their own hands in some situations.

"We are referring to trends here. We are monitoring the situation on a daily basis and applying measures on a county to county basis. I think that we won't refrain from that approach as it has shown to be correct so far," he underscored.

Croatia has not registered the experiences with AstraZeneca's vaccination like in other countries

As far as mistrust towards the AstraZeneca vaccine is concerned, Božinović said that reports by the HALMED medical agency and the Croatian Institute for Public Health "have not had any experiences that are being referred to in other countries."

However, it will be necessary to improve the trust in that vaccine through communication with the public, recalling that government members, including the Prime Minister, were inoculated with that vaccine.

"It is important for the overall public to realise that the pandemic has affected all four corners of the earth and that we will come out of this situation when an adequate solution is applied in all the countries affected by COVID," Božinović underlined, adding that it was important for the vaccine to be available everywhere.

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ZAGREB, 15 April, 2021 -  Of 10,876 tests performed for coronavirus in Croatia in the last 24 hours, 27%, that is 2,927, have turned out to be positive, the national COVID-19 crisis management team reported on Thursday.

The COVID-related death toll has risen by 43 to 6,442.

Currently, there are 15,307 active cases of the infection, including 1,988 patients in hospitals, of whom 179 are placed on ventilators.

A total of 29,551 people are self-isolating.

Since the confirmation of the first case of the infection with the novel virus on 25 February 2020, Croatia has performed 1 674 418 tests, and to date 300,900 people have tested positive. Of them, 279,151 have recovered from this disease, including 1,457 recoveries in the last 24 hours.

To date, under the Croatia's vaccine rollout plan, 617,516 doses have been administered. As many as 381,164 people have received the first shot of the two-dose vaccine, while 117,283 have been inoculated with both doses.

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ZAGREB, 14 April, 2021 - In the past 24 hours Croatia has registered 3,099 new coronavirus cases while 41 people have died as a consequence, the national COVID response team reported on Wednesday.

That is a significantly higher number of infections and deaths compared to Tuesday when 1,936 new cases and 25 deaths were registered.

There are 13,880 active cases in the country, including 1,955 hospitalised patients, of whom 185 are on ventilators. There are currently 27,528 people in self-isolation.

Since 25 February 2020, when the first case of coronavirus was detected in Croatia, there have been a total of 297,973 people infected with the virus and 6,399 people have died as a consequence. A total of 277,694 have recovered from the disease, including 1,274 in the past 24 hours.

To date a total of 1,663,542 have been tested for the virus, including 11,017 in the past 24 hours.

As of 13 April a total of 605,423 doses of vaccines have been administered, inoculating 491,601 people. Of that number, 375,993 people have received the first dose and 113,822 have received both doses. For 1,786 people there was no data on which dose they received.

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ZAGREB, 13 April, 2021 - Foreign tourists who generate at least one bed night in Zagreb can be tested for COVID-19 at 50% of the price and about 20 have already been tested over the weekend, the director of the Zagreb Tourist Board (TZGZ), Martina Bienenfeld, said on Tuesday.

TZGZ is the first regional tourist board in Croatia that has opened a testing station for foreign tourists as had previously been proposed by Tourism and Sports Minister Nikolina Brnjac.

Testing to be co-financed

In addition to opening the testing station, TZGZ has decided to cofinance testing that is conducted during weekends and public holidays, Bienenfeld told Hina.

TZGZ will cover half the cost of testing for tourists, she said, estimating that the greatest demand will be in the coming period and that that will depend on the percentage of inoculated tourists from the countries they are coming from, but also of employees in tourism and citizens themselves, and finally on the introduction of Digital Green Certificates at the EU level.

Testing during weekdays will be at the normal price and already about ten Zagreb hotels are providing testing services. Testing can also be conducted at Zagreb's airport.

Providing opportunity for tourists to extend their stay

"One of the important reasons why we decided to co-finance testing in the days noted is that this provides the opportunity for tourists to extend their stay in Zagreb, because they do not have to worry where and when they can be tested when returning to their countries and they can avoid quarantine," said Bienefeld.

All the necessary information regarding testing is available at www.infozagreb.hr/korona-virus in various languages, she said and added that the first tourists tested this way last weekend (10 and 11 April) were from Italy, Denmark, Germany and Albania.

Bienefeld said that since the beginning of the year until 11 April, almost 65,000 tourists had visited Zagreb and they generated 177,500 bed nights, which is about 47% of arrivals and 58% of bed nights generated in the comparable period in 2020.

Compared to the record 2019 year, that is about 27% and 37% of arrivals and bed nights respectively. 

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ZAGREB, 13 April, 2021 - Over the past 24 hours, 1,936 new cases of the coronavirus infection have been confirmed in Croatia, and there have been 25 related deaths, the national COVID-19 crisis management team said on Tuesday.

Since the start of the epidemic in February 2020, 1,652,525 people have been tested for the virus, including 10,214 in the past 24 hours.

The number of active cases in Croatia stands at 12,096, including 1,948 people who are hospitalised, of whom 192 are on ventilators.

Currently 26,192 people are in self-isolation.

Since 25 February 2020, when Croatia registered its first case of the infection, 294,874 people have contracted the novel coronavirus and 6,358 of them have died. A total of 276,420 people have recovered, including 1,659 in the last 24 hours.

As of 12 April, 595,369 doses of vaccine have been used, and 483,825 people have been vaccinated.

Of them, 370,544 people have received the first dose, and 111,544 have received both doses. For 1,737 people, there is no data on which dose they have received.

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ZAGREB, 9 April, 2021 - Over the past 24 hours, Croatia has registered 50 COVID-19-related fatalities and 2,599 new cases of coronavirus infection, after 8,994 samples were tested, the national COVID-19 crisis management team said on Friday.

The number of active cases in Croatia today stands at 13,200.

There are 1,768 COVID-19 patients in hospitals, 175 of whom are on ventilators.

Since 25 February 2020, when Croatia registered its first case of the infection, a total of 288,364 people have contracted coronavirus and 6,235 of them have died.

A total of 268,929 people have recovered, including 2,116 in the last 24 hours.

There are currently 26,425 people in self-isolation.

To date, 1,619,663 people have been tested, 8,994 of whom have been tested over the past 24 hours.

As of 8 April, 543,436 doses of vaccine have been used, and 440,890 people have been vaccinated. Of them, 336,693 people have received the first dose, and 102,546 have received both doses. For 1,651 people there is no data on which dose they have received.

For more about COVID-19 in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.